Process and apparatus for making seating members for fluid seals



Feb. 24. '1925.

1,527,959 C. F. SHERWOQD PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SEATINGMEMBERS FOR FLUID SEALS Filed Oct. 25, 1922 o o o o a" o o o q F/a. I.

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Patented Feb. 24, 1925 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES FREDERIC snnawoon, or sAN r'nANoIs'o'o, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR onONE-HALF T0 LYNnoN n. AnAMs, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SEATING MEMBERS FOR FLUID SEALS.

Application filed October 25, 1922. Serial No. 596,734.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES FRnDnRIo SHERWOOD, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at San Francisco, county of San Francisco, and State ofCalifornia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Processes andApparatus for Making Seat ing Members for Fluid Seals, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification. V

In the manufacture of metal covered gaskets, such, for example, as thoseused for sealing tube surfaces and specifically those interposed betweenthe cap block and the removable head of a gasoline engine, it iscustomary to form a core or base by stamping or punching from a sheet ofasbestos, fibre or other known substance and to form the cover bystamping or punching from a thin copper sheet; the metal cover beingapplied to the asbestos base and held thereon by crimping or othermechanical means. This method of manufacture is costly in the followingrespects: There is considerable waste of metal due to the punching outrequired to conform the metal sheet to the irregular form of theasbestos base and particularly to the large orifices contained therein.Much labor and some skill are required to fit and seal the metal sheetto the base and especially to crimp the edges of the sheet around themargin of the base and the edges of the orifices. Where the cover ismade of copper, as it usually is, it is necessary to useelectrolytically refined copper, which is quite expensive, while thewaste copper is salable at but a small fraction of the cost, measured byweight, of the sheet metal. 7

It is known to provide a packing for pipe joints, piston rods, etc.,having a body comprising an elastic substance as its main ingredient,rubbing graphite on the surface of the body to form an adhesive coatingadapted to act as a cathode in an electrolytic bath, placing the same'insuch bath together with an anode, such as copper, and A then connectingthe anode and the graphite coated body with a source of electricalenergy, thereby depositing on the graphite coated elastic body a coatingof the material of the anode.

The object of my invention is to effect an improvement in the knownmethod of coating packing for pipe oints, piston rods, rubber valves forpumps, etc., which method is also of the gaskets in a continuous manner,and

to permit the use of agreater current density.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a face view of an uncoated asbestos gasket. Fig. 2 is a viewof an apparatus for electrolytically coating in accordance with process.

Selecting a gasket of the type to which initial reference was made,which comprises a flat sheet of copper-covered asbestos having an oblongcontour and provided with a series of rectangular perforations, the coreor base a is first made as shown in Fig. 1 by stamping or punching thesame from a sheet of asbestos, or by any other procedure, the method offorming the base having nothing to do with my invention. This base sheetis then dipped into a Wax or gummed solu tion containing a largepercentage of flake graphite or plumbago, or other suitableelectro-conductive material.

A number of such graphitized asbestos gaskets are suspended from aconveyor n and travel successively through an electrolyte 0 contained ina vessel p, which is copper-lined and thus itself acts as the anode. Thevessel and the conveyor are connected respectively with the oppositepoles of an electric circuit.

By the foregoing method of manufacture, which is applicable to allseating, fluid-sealing and packing members, the rate of speed of theconveyor and the length of travel of the articles through the bath areso adjusted as to apply a coating of copper of the desired thickness bythe time the article emerges from the bath. This method is alsoadvantageous in that both the article to be metal-coated and the bathitself are subjected to more or less agitation, thereby permitting theuse of a greater current density.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and desire toprotect by Letters Patent is:

1. The process of making a seating memher for a fluid seal comprisingforming a multiplicity of cores of a relatively electricallynon-conductive material shaped in accordance with the desired shapes ofthe ultimate products, applying coatings of graphite thereto, andconveyingthe same successively through an electrolyte in contact with ananode concurrently with the passage of an electric current.

2. T he process of making a seating memher for a fluid seal comprisingforming a multiplicity of cores of a relatively electricallynon-conductive material. shaped in accordance with the desired shapes ofthe and conveying the cores successively through an electrolyte incontact with an anode concurrently with the passage of an electriccurrent.

The process of making a seating memher for a fluid seal comprisingforming a multiplicity of cores of a relatively electricallynon-c0nductive material shaped in accordance with the desired shapes ofthe ultimate products, applying coatings oi? graphite thereto, providinga vessel containing an electrolyte coated with the metal to be depositedon the cores, connecting the conveyor and the vessel with the oppositepoles of an electric circuit, and passing the graphitized cores in aprocessional manner through the electrolyte concurrently with thepassage of an electric. current.

In testimony of which invention, I have hereunto set my hand, at NewYork, on this thirteenth day of October, 1922.

CHARLES FREDERIC SHERlVOOD.

